Roots Before Branches
by It's So Clovely
Summary: Wiress's thoughts before she dies in The Quarter Quell. Rated T, because either it's The Hunger Games; has violence; or I'm crazy. First fanfic! Please R&R! One-shot. Slight Beetee/Wiress. And kinda OOC...


"Gloss..." The boy from District One is looking at me with a vicious glare in his eyes. He holds a dagger in his puny hands, probably ready to stab me in the heart at once. But then, I'm just sitting here-by the water without a weapon. Of course, I do have Beetee's wire, but there's no electricity to stand by me. "Are you...?" I feel as if my heart could stop at the sight of Gloss's chuckles silently at me.

"Going kill you?" Gloss decides to finish his sentence for me, kneeling down beside me and lifting up my chin so my eyes can meet his. But I don't want to meet his sullen eyes. "Of course, Wires. I'm supposed to kill those weak ones...or we're supposed to kill the weak ones. You know-the Careers?" Gloss begins to hold the dagger up to my face, while he caresses the edges of the blade.

I nod my head. Who wouldn't know the Careers-the vicious; killing-machines; and murderers of The Games every year? "I know the..." I trail off, frowning at the sentence I couldn't to finish. But then, this time-I manage to finish what I was going to say; "Careers."

"Good. You happened to finish your own sentence this time, Wires." Gloss mutters under his breath, pursing both of his lips together as he begins to stroke the handle of the blade. I know I'm going to be killed in a few seconds or minutes-just like Blight, but differently. Not by blood rain...but by my own blood that's going to be pouring down all over me.

I try to hold back the dam in my head that tries to break out my tears. I'm not going to appear as a weakling to Gloss or anyone anymore. I'm not going to cry. Quietly, I look down at the wire and think of Beetee...

Beetee. I've loved him ever since he became my mentor. I was only fifteen-years-old; him being about twenty-six-years-old. About two years later, Beetee married the _normal_ escort from District Five. They met during my Victory Tour. I was invited to their wedding, but I declined for he never saw the true feelings I had for him all of this time. I haven't seen Beetee ever since the last time I mentored in the 63rd Hunger Games-that is, until The Quarter Quell came up.

"Ready?" Gloss laughs at me, slightly smirking. I know he means to be killed. By a dagger. That was almost how I got killed in my Hunger Games-the 42nd one.

"Probably..." I choke out, finally showing my weakness-by crying. The dam has broken and has let the tears drip out of my eyes. I can't stop it. I just cannot stop the wet tears mocking its way down my cheeks. "I don't want to die, Gloss..." I bit my bottom lip, gripping onto Beetee's wire as hard as I can until my knuckles turned white.

Gloss scoffs at me, moving the weapon toward my neck. "Where should we start?" He questions me. "Neck; wrist; or face?" I shake my head left and right while I start to loosen my grip on Beetee's wire. I don't want to have any of my body parts slit with a dagger.

"None..." I whimper at Gloss, showing off that I'm stronger and older than him by holding up the wire to his abdomen. "I'm stronger and smarter and older than you, Gloss! You can't kill me..." I wail at him, while I flail the wire around.

"Wow!" Gloss murmurs, clearly unimpressed at me. He holds the dagger close to my neck-all of a sudden. "That's the first time you've ever told a full sentence. Now is the time you've ever had a painful-yet blissful-death."

I scream as he presses the cold blade onto my neck. I scream, I realize that no one notices me. They're too caught up in their work to know I'm in real danger. Everyone's trying to find logs for the campfire for the night-except for Beetee. He's just staring blankly into space, probably thinking if he dies or not. "Tick tock!" I manage to wail out at everyone else. But still-it's like I'm invisible. "The mouse ran up the clock; hickory dickory dock. The clock struck twelve, and the mouse ran down, so hickory dickory dock. Tick tock!" I sob a river of tears as I shriek for attention.

He laughs, as he quietly makes up a line of blood on my neck. It feels just so painful to feel red blood pouring down on my neck. So, this is how it's pain feels like in the moments of death. "They're not listening or coming, Wireless." I continue to bawl as he cuts me.

"Tick tock..." I whisper, feeling Beetee's wire slowly slip out of my hands. I feel as if I am cradling myself to sleep with those words-or rather my death. "Tick tock, Wiress. Tick tock, Beetee. Tick tock..." I notice that he's done with his job; he's neatly putting his-now bloody-dagger into his belt. I whimper as I watch him getting away with my death.

"Yes," Gloss smiles at me like a crazy villain of some sort. Like one of those mad villains I've heard in many of those fairytales Mama used to tell me. But I won't remember the stories in the moments of my last minutes. "Tick tock; tick tock. My job is done." That's when I see an arrow being speared into his temple.

I see as he falls to the ground, blood gushing out of his head. As Gloss starts to fall down, I notice that the arrow is from Katniss's sheath. _Katniss... _I think to myself, bringing my index finger to the line on my neck. _Such a sweet girl. She's unlike many people at times... _When I feel the line on my neck, I see that it's already pouring out amounts of blood. It just feels painful and more painful every moment.

"Wiress!" Beetee's voice is the last thing I ever hear in the world. His voice. It's terribly wonderful to hear the voice of the person who was your last hope. Of course; you don't forget the face of the person who was your last hope. I'll never be able to forget Beetee's-ever. "Wiress! Stay with me! Please!"

I begin to close my eyes, when I notice that Beetee starts to grasp onto my hand. It's too bad I won't be able to hold it again.

I start to hear the others as my painful death doesn't feel so painful anymore.

"Wiress! You can't die!" Peeta's.

"Stay with us!" Katniss's.

"She's dead. Isn't she?" Johanna's.

"Yes." And Finnick's.

And I realize: I hadn't grown my roots yet. Nor my branches. I had to grow my roots before branches, but that wasn't done.

Then my cannon goes off in seconds. Tick tock...

* * *

(A/N): Yippee! Beeress! Oh, what a wonderful pairing! My most favorite one by far. BTW, the title was based off a song of the same title by Room For Two. A sweet song if you ask me. Please review if you want to! Oh, and I don't own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does. But then she doesn't own my annoying brother, does she? I don't own the song, _Roots Before Branches, _too. It belongs to Room For Two.


End file.
